FreeCharge finds a way to top up its merchant base

HYDERABAD: Strengthening its offline play, mobile wallet and payments company FreeCharge is looking at partnering with mobile Point of Sale (PoS) solutions to get corner stores and unorganised merchants on its platform.

The company , which was acquired by Snapdeal last year, has been signing on organised merchants through its association with Pine Labs, Ezetap and others to facilitate payments through the FreeCharge wallet at the PoS in these chains.

“The solution for unorganised merchants will be very different from organised merchants who have already invested in a Point of Sale system. The idea is to make the smartphone the Point of Sale to accept payments through the wallet,“ said Govind Rajan, chief operating officer (COO) of FreeCharge.

He added that the company would be announcing tie-ups in the space by the end of March.

“With the upcoming Indian Premier League, we will introduce new ways to pay through the wallet,“ said Rajan adding the focus of the company continues to be the business-toconsumer offering rather than devising payment solutions for other businesses. The platform currently processes one million transactions a day and plans on increasing the volume to seven million transactions a day by the end of 2016.

The digital wallet space in India has seen an increase in the number of tie-ups being pursued by the wallet companies with offline retailers to increase adoption.

Marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart have stepped up the focus on creating a wallet to ensure customer loyalty and as a means for merchant acquisition to beat Alibaba-backed Paytm, which had integrated an online marketplace to its wallet in 2014.

Jio’s Rs 2,399 annual plan offers 2GB per day data that costs effectively Rs 200 per month. It also offers unlimited voice and SMS. Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s Rs 2398 and Rs 2399 annual plans, on the other hand, offer 1.5GB per day data along with unlimited voice and SMS